Link to Inverted Images
This is the first detailed image of We 2-34 (PK 210+03 1, PN G210.0+03.9), which was entered by R. Weinberger in his 1977 compendium of 335 objects designated as possible, probable or true planetary nebulae since the closing of the 1967 Perek-Kohoutek PN catalog. The HASH planetary nebula database reports that this is a true PN and that spectra confirm the presence of Ha and NII. From my image, there appears to be no OIII. I found almost nothing else about it. The nebula is about 5 arcminutes in my image. There's an extremely faint blue star almost centrally located, which is probably the progenitor star.
Exposure: Total exposure time about 12 hours, 30:4 x 20 minutes Ha:OIII, 42:43:45 x 2 minutes RGB. The OIII showed no signal, so I didn't use it in the final image. All bin 1x1. Data collected in February and March 2022.
Light pollution: SQM ~18.38 (Bortle 7-8, NELM at zenith about 4.5, Red/white zone border.)
Seeing: FWHM of integrated Ha 2.6 arcsecs
Image scale at capture: 0.78 arcsecs/pixel
Scale of presentation: Full scale
Equipment:
Scope: 12" f/4 Newtonian with 3" Riccardi Wynne coma corrector
Mount: Paramount MX+, connected via ASCOM Telescope Driver 6.2 for TheSkyX, with MKS 5000 driver 6.0.0.0
Camera: SXVR-H694, connected via SX ASCOM driver 6.2.1.18212 (SX Windows Drivers 15.26.50.450 also installed)
Filter wheel: Atik EFW2 with 7x1.25 carousel and Artemis 2.4.3.0 driver
Filters: Astrodon Type IIi LRGB
Rotator/Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35
OAG: Orion Thin OAG
Guide cam: Lodestar (first generation). 4 second exposures
Automation SW: Sequence Generator Pro 4.2
Guide SW: PHD 2.6.11, connected to guide cam via native SXV driver
ASCOM: ASCOM 6.6 SP1
Platesolving: PlateSolve 2, failover to local Astrometry.net 0.19 server
Collimation: Metaguide 3, using ASI120MM connected via ZWO Direct Show driver 3.0.0.2
Processing Software: Pixinisight, Photoshop CS2
Processing Workflow by Workspace in PixInsight 1.8.9:
1. Calibration
Calibration with WeightedBatchPreProcessing with flats and bias, using Cosmetic Correction with a master dark
Blink to preview and reject a few frames
Weighting, registration and integration with WBPP
RGB Combination for RGB frames
Dynamic Background Extraction on narrowband and RGB
ImageSolve RGB, then run Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, using Average Spiral Galaxy white reference
BlurXterminator on narrowband and RGB
NoiseXterminator on narrowband and RGB
2. Narrowband Processing
Histo Trans x 3
Curves Trans
StarXterminator to create starless image
3. Colorization of Narrowband Image
Colorize to red with PixelMath, using the Ha image for the red channel and setting blue and green to match the background of the Ha image
Curves Trans to brighten
4. RGB Processing
Histo Trans
Curves Trans to boost saturation
Histo Trans
Curves Trans for brightness
StarXTerminator to create starless and stars-only (star mask) images
5. Image Combination
PixelMath to blend stars-only image and colorized narrowband image using formula ((1-$T)*(stars_only))+$T
In Photoshop, layer the nebula_plus_stars image onto the RGB image using a mask
6. Final
Final Histogram Transformation
ICC Profile Transform to sRGB
Save as JPG
